Code Chrysalis

This course is a very transformative three-month programming boot camp focused on agile full-stack app development with JavaScript. It exceeded all my expectations, delivering an experience that was as rigorous as it was rewarding.

From day one, the course... Read More was designed to push students to their limits, ensuring we not only mastered technical skills but also developed the resilience needed to thrive in a fast-paced tech environment. The curriculum was meticulously structured, providing a perfect balance between theory and hands-on projects. We built sophisticated applications, each project more challenging than the last, which solidified my understanding and ability to apply what I learned.

One of the standout aspects of this boot camp was the emphasis on personal and professional growth. The instructors were outstanding—always encouraging, never intimidating, and deeply invested in our success. They fostered an environment where being comfortable with discomfort became second nature, enabling us to push beyond our perceived limits and grow exponentially.

The teamwork component was equally invaluable. We were trained to function seamlessly as junior engineers within a team, collaborating effectively and embracing agile methodologies. This experience was instrumental in preparing me for real-world tech roles.

The entry selection interview itself was also a remarkable learning opportunity, elevating my coding skills right from the start. Additionally, the boot camp’s job hunting preparation was top-notch. We received comprehensive guidance on every aspect of the job search process, from resume building to interview techniques and networking strategies. Although I secured a job through my own network immediately after graduation, the career support and preparation provided by the boot camp were crucial in boosting my confidence and readiness for the job market.

This boot camp is a game-changer for anyone serious about transitioning into a tech career. It’s an intense journey, but with the unwavering support and exceptional instruction, it’s incredibly rewarding.

Before taking the leap to change careers, I was self-studying programming for about a year and a half. During that time I was working as an English teacher in Tokyo and I realized I wanted to transition into an industry with greater professional growth... Read More opportunities.

The course was challenging, and while some concepts were covered quickly, it encouraged me to continue to learn on my own and fill in the gaps after the course was finished.

I graduated in 2021, when the borders were closed due to the pandemic. After working with the career support team every other week via zoom, I gained insight into how to improve my resume and approaches to job applications. In the end, I received a few job offers and have been working as a full-time software engineer ever since. Taking the immersive course has truly been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Code Chrysalis is a fast-paced, well-rounded bootcamp for anyone looking to break into the Software Engineering space. I couldn't have asked for a better curriculum, given the short amount of time common with most bootcamps. There is also room for students... Read More to pursue their own interests, tools and, technologies. It's amazing what you can accomplish if just 12-weeks. I was offered a backend developer role 1.5 months out of the bootcamp, with the help of Code Chrysalis career support. The career support offered by Code Chrysalis is outstanding. They help you with everything such as, interview prep, resume/cover letter reviews and, they even continue to support you throughout your entire career. They offer weekly check-ins and a supportive community of alumni who are all very friendly and helpful when it comes to finding a job.

It was crucial for me. I moved to Japan with my wife without a detailed plan. I was just going to "figure things out" as my previous career was not for me and I wanted a serious change in life... I made "it" happen and C.C. was a big part of me getting... Read More a job in Tokyo. It took me three months of studying to pass the interview to be accepted to the course. The precourse lasted two months. The course itself was a full time of three months... and I mean FULL TIME ;) The C.C. assisted me in finding a job. They put a lot of effort into that. The staff has done a great job. I'm impressed. ;)

I work in tourism but because of the pandemic, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands, so this summer I decided to join some random events and tried some online courses about programming. I come from a completely non-technical background, so I... Read More was surprised that it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be for me. But after a few weeks, I was discouraged by the slow progress I was making, and, at the same time, I wasn't even sure I was learning the right language. I found out about coding bootcamps, but I wasn't sure if they were worth the investment. That's why, when I saw that Code Chrysalis were offering a beginners' course, I decided to join and see what it's like to study in a more structured environment and with other people, as opposed to online self-study. I read some online reviews about the Foundations course, and it seemed like pretty much everyone thought it was "fun and easy". After going through it, I can definitely say the "fun" part is true, but I'm not so sure about the "easy" part. Here are some of my thoughts after graduating from CC Foundations 27: 1. It's a great introduction to Javascript for beginners, but at the same time, I think it's useful for those who are not new to JS or programming but want to review their basics. After each lesson, there are coding exercises for 4 levels, from basic to "nightmare", so each student can see what level they're at. For beginners like me, it was sometimes frustrating that even basic exercises took me a long time to solve, but it was challenging to try a higher than basic level, and if I was able to crack the code (pun intended), the satisfaction was even greater and it pushed me to try and learn more. 2. The lessons themselves are pretty basic, so the real learning comes from working on the coding challenges, as I mentioned above. This should be obvious, but as a beginner, I think I had expected something more like a coding tutorial, where we would learn how "something is done" and then try to do it on our own. But for many of the exercises, I had to google things on my own, and try to understand the more complex solutions provided on Stackoverflow, for example, and then adapt them to simpler code, which I was able to write at my own level. So in that respect, even though it's a beginners' course (and a short one for that matter!), it kind of forces you to work in a manner similar to what it's like for an actual software developer. 3. So one might ask, why should I pay (and not a little!) for a course if in the end I have to google the solutions myself? Well, even if you find the solutions online, you may not be able to fully understand the code and what it does, and that's when you can always check with the instructors of the course. All of the instructors and the TAs at CC were very helpful and always encouraged us to ask questions. There were quite a few of them for the Foundations course, and it could be frustrating at times having a different instructor with every lesson, because sometimes it felt like there was little continuity from one lesson to another, but on the other hand, I think this was also supposed to teach us how to work with and learn from different people and different coding styles. Also, the more instructors the better, because we could get an answer on Slack faster from whoever was available. 4. All in all, there was a lot packed in a 5-week course, which is why I don't think it was easy. I would advise anyone who is thinking about taking the Foundations to study Javascript a little bit prior to starting the course, so that you can really take advantage of all the resources available throughout the course. I think even if you know the basics, this course can give you the opportunity to level-up, and also to meet great people in the industry and expand your network.

After a few months of self-studying, I was frustrated at my speed of progress and thought that a structured classroom setting might be the solution. It was just what I needed! Curriculum: Not only does the curriculum cover all the JavaScript basics, but... Read More it also branches into other slightly more advanced topics that you wouldn't usually find in other 'intro to programming courses' (e.g. Higher-Order Functions and Closures) and encourages you to Google and search for concepts/solutions on your own. You will also do a couple of projects that help to consolidate your new-found knowledge! Furthermore, the course is sprinkled with lectures that cover non-technical skills that are very important to possess when pursuing a career in the software industry such as how to develop a growth mindset and overcome Imposter Syndrome. This prepares you well for the next step in your coding journey whether it's to carry on learning by yourself or move onto a full-time coding Bootcamp. Lessons: They usually start with a warm-up exercise on a topic covered in the previous lesson before moving onto the lecture for that lesson. This is followed by hacking time to practice what you just learned and ask questions about particular areas you may be stuck on. You will also get to experience pair programming with classmates and occasionally with the instructor. One thing to be aware of is that the course does move quickly due to the number of topics covered and there will be times when you may feel overwhelmed. However, what's cool is that all the instructors on Foundations are graduates of the school's main Immersive Bootcamp and volunteer their time to teach you so they understand what it's like to learn something completely new and are always very happy to help (they won't just give you the answers though!) Overall, I thoroughly encourage anyone who is keen to see what all this programming is about to apply, especially those who want to learn at an accelerated pace. As a part-time course (2 weekday evenings and Saturdays), you won't have to quit your full-time job and you will be learning a valuable skill. In fact, I enjoyed my experience so much that I decided to continue my coding education with Code Chrysalis and will be starting their full-time Immersive course in early 2021!

I took the Immersive Bootcamp in Q4 2019.
I came into the program with a background in Product Management and electrical engineering, so I already had some disparate coding experience. My main reason for taking the course was to try and pull all those... Read More little bits of coding experience into something useable and coherent, which is exactly what I got!
The main focus of the bootcamp is building MVPs, every lecture is accompanied by a workshop to work through related problems. Further on in the course, there are a series of MVP projects which build upon the previous lectures and projects. For example, the first MVP is expected to be a very scrappy app with a very specific theme, but as you move forward one is expected to work in larger teams and build more comprehensive apps with basic release cycles, branches and pull requests. I really enjoyed this structure, as I definitely learn by doing, and if you get stuck on a particular aspect of a project there is always someone on hand to help immediately. The distinct advantage of this approach for me was by the time the Bootcamp was over, I had a couple really solid projects that I could put on my CV.
Another strength of the bootcamp is its place within the coding community in Tokyo, Code Chrysalis runs a lot of tech events aimed at various skill levels and its demo days attract engineering managers from many of the big companies in the area (as being in Roppongi, the school is within walking distance to several large companies, i.e. Google, Mercari, Moneytree etc.) connections I made at events and through the schools 'Talent Access' event were where almost all of my interviews came from. There is also a good job seeking support program following the conclusion of the bootcamp, with full access to practice interviews and salary insights if needed.
All in all, highly recommended .

Code Chrysalis is an excellent coding bootcamp. There's no doubt that the course curriculum itself is outstanding. You can learn software engineering with the Bay-area latest style while living in Japan. It teaches you to become autonomous.

However, since... Read More a lot of ex-students have already written about the application process and what the immersive course is like, I'd like to share the three best things about Code Chrysalis beside the course itself.

1. Psychological safety
If you want to seriously achieve in something, you should immerse yourself in an intense environment and must get out your comfort zone. And then you need to do try & error until you feel like you got this. To do that, "Okay-to-make-a-mistake" atmosphere is really important. Code Chrysalis knows that and they provides mentoring and takes great care of their student's to build psychological safety atmosphere within the class.

2. Awesome classmate and Networking
This course is very intense. To be honest, the 12-weeks program was really hard. Since you overcome this hard obstacle together with your classmates and the staff, they become pretty much like family. This friendship is the one of the best things I got from this course. Also they do a lot of meetups, such as giving a tech-talk in the public event, which is part of the course. you can build a wide network of connections through the course by being exposed to the public.

3. International environment
I think an ONLY-English program is super rare in Japan. Don't quote me but I'm pretty sure there is only one or two international diverse environment in Tokyo. Being Japanese, I think it's really hard to put yourself in an only-English communication environment. But because of this environment, I gained the confidence in my English work for an international company. This is tremendous achievement for me.

I was working for many years as a software engineer in Japan but it was not so challenging. So I wanted and decided to challenge absolutely different things with international people. Luckily I found Code Chrysalis which is perfectly matched to me.

Code... Read More Chrysalis gave me many different kind of experiences, not just learning and working with international people but also key things to be an autonomous expert (includes body relational exercises). All I have done here were so valuable, extreme and made me stronger through each curriculum and projects for 3 months. For instance, I was not a person speaking well before people but now I don't have any problem with that because my face has become an iron mask through bunch of speech. What I want to say is whatever it is such as techs, relationships even games! something you feel uncomfortable, you can make it your comfortable here.

Also you can find a new interest in your life and test it as well. For me, during the course, I found the new interest and got a job where I can do it with international people in Tokyo.

Now it's your turn, be happy!

I am an American born and raised with some background in Shanghai. After graduating college as an Electrical Engineering major and working at a stale job for a year, I decided that I wanted to do something more challenging and more in demand so I started... Read More learning programming in my spare time. I was looking up coding bootcamps when I saw a news article on Code Chrysalis and found that it was a bootcamp in Tokyo. It has always been my dream to work in Tokyo so I thought this was literally the perfect opportunity. I did a bunch of research, found the price to be much cheaper than the popular bootcamps in the Bay Area, and checked to see that the stack that they teach was up-to-date and competitive so I followed my gut and went with it.

It wasn't just all easy moving forwards. Saying that I was challenged during the course is an understatement. Signing up for this bootcamp is 3 months of isolation where you do nothing but code from 9-6 and that's the minimum. Most of my weekends were spent working on sprints, team projects, and preparing a 45 minute tech talk that we present to the public. Code Chrysalis didn't just challenge my technical ability, it also forced me out of my comfort zone completely. They honed our abilities to code, network, communicate with teammates, present to crowds, and most important face new challenges. By the end of the program, I was at the level of a junior developer technically, but I was confident that I could rise the ranks very quickly with what I learned there.

I now have a job in Tokyo at an English speaking startup that sponsors my visa and I literally owe it all to Code Chrysalis. They are not just a bootcamp, but a network for jobs, the Tokyo tech scene, friends, and games. I cannot recommend it enough.